WASHINGTON – Don’t be offended if your doctor writes that you’re SOB, or that an exam detected BS.

The aim is to help, not insult: A project is beginning to test if patients fare better when given fast electronic access to more of their medical chart — the detailed notes that doctors record about you during and after every visit. You just might have to look up some of the technical jargon, like those abbreviations for “shortness of breath” and “bowel sounds.”

Didn’t know about those notes? Researchers involved in the “OpenNotes” project say they are surprised at how many patients don’t.

“You really have to be a partner with your doctor to do well,” says Dr. Tom Delbanco of Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who heads the study and thinks better use of those notes will help.

“It’s your body. It’s your record. It’s your illness. You should have ready access to everything about it.”

Yes, your clinic may have an electronic records system that lets you log in to make an appointment, check your cholesterol test or review your medications. But Delbanco and nursing colleague Jan Walker have found few include those doctor notes that provide details about a patient’s health.

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DENVER – Federal land managers say artist Christo’s plan to drape fabric over several miles of the Arkansas River in Colorado would have a significant impact on recreation and traffic, with an estimated 350,000 people expected to flock to the area to view it.

The Bureau of Land Management released its draft environmental study Friday on Christo’s “Over the River” project, adding that the “unprecedented” effort could have a moderate to significant impact on bighorn sheep and historical sites.

Steve Coffin, a Denver-based spokesman for the project, said any impact would be temporary.

Christo wants to use a system of anchors, frames and cables to suspend 5.9 miles of fabric across eight spots along a 42-mile stretch of the river. The BLM studied seven versions of the project, including a scaled-down effort.

Coffin said the alternatives were not developed in consultation with Christo and that the artist would push for the full project. He said Christo has already comprised and scaled down what originally was seen as a 10.4-mile project.

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BOSTON – Governors hamstrung by the sluggish economic rebound in their states and bound to balance their own budgets are pressing anew for Washington to step up with more help, some say even if it means adding to the nation’s red ink.

Republicans and Democrats alike wrestled with how to capitalize on a fledgling rebound as they talked dollars and sense at their summer meeting just days into a new budget year and as the economy shapes dozens of gubernatorial races across the country.

“All states still are facing tough fiscal situations even though I do believe we’re in recovery,” said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who’s taking over as chairman of the National Governors Association.

Added Gov. Jim Douglas, R-Vt., the outgoing chairman: “Governors have done what is necessary to get through this” — repeatedly cutting budgets, restructuring government, laying off workers and draining rainy day funds.

But both men said states can’t continue to climb out of the recession alone, and the NGA renewed its bipartisan appeal for Congress to pass stalled jobs legislation that includes billions of dollars in aid to states.

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ATLANTA – More older Americans are getting tested for colon cancer, with nearly two out of three getting recommended screenings.

Meanwhile, rates for breast cancer screening remain stuck on a higher plateau, according to a government report released Tuesday.

U.S. health officials estimate that at least 10,000 lives could be saved each year if more people got checked.

“We have further to go,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC report comes from a 2008 national telephone survey. About 200,000 people ages 50 to 75 answered questions about colon cancer screening.

About 63 percent said they’d had a recommended test to look for colorectal cancer. That could include a home test kit that looks for blood in stool done in the past year, or a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy done within the last 10 years.

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